Jony Ive - Care, the Essential Ingredient for Design Perfection

By Anthony Antoine, Associate Partner, Lighthouse International

Jony Ive is the man responsible for Apple's iconic design beauty and in the terms of his position at Apple, he is second only to CEO Tim Cook. Ive is responsible for the design of the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

So how do Ive and his team create these amazing designs that work so well, time and time again? Or perhaps a better question would be - how do they maintain such a consistent level of design excellence?

One word. Care!

Their motivation for excellent design is born from a care and passion for doing something beautiful, meaningful and inspiring. You could quite easily label Jony Ive a fanatic; he's exhaustingly passionate about what he's creating. Every last detail of his creations is carefully sculpted so that it looks and functions beautifully. To the extent that many other manufacturers have attempted to emulate Apple’s aesthetics.

This passion for attention to detail and a desire for design greatness shines through at Apple. They spend far more on research and developing their products than many other like-for-like companies, from the iPod right up to the newly-developed Apple Watch - which took far longer and cost much more than planned. Then again, Apple also outstrips its competitors in terms of revenue and success.

Why? They are investing so much time and effort in their product design through Ive’s leadership. There is a huge amount of care to get every detail right - whether visible to the end user or not, it can certainly be sensed by their customers as Ive describes in this video...

What are the little or big things you care about or make your life worth living?